The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

Christ. In Job 38: 47 is mentioned the "cornerston&';. - and Christ said (Matthew 21: 42) to the Pharisees:*"Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone whichthe buildem rejected, the same is become the head ofthe comer?" evidently referring to Psalm 118: 28 andir9Isaiah 28:18. It ia easy to sea how this would baparticulruly true of the topstone of the Pyramid. Itwould not fit any place during the process of building;but when the apex was reached, no other stone wouldflt.About 1881 Professor Flinders Petrie, who had madepemnal visits to the pyramids and &wive measurementsof their upper portions, mote his memorablework, "!I'he Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh." He Tasalso enthusiastic in describing the wonderful workmanahIpof construction, cloenesa of joints, accuracy ofangles, and cactnCs of detail evidenced throughout theentire structumThe above books are now rare, but are to be fwndin some librariesIn 1891 Mr. C. T. Russell publiahed his work, 'ThyKingdom- Come." Having read Professor Smyth'swork, ccOur Inheritance in the Great Pyramid," he ww60 impressed with it that he devoted one entire chapterto the theological teachin5 of the Great Ppmid. Afriend hearing of his intention requested the privilegeof submitting the manuscript for the chapter on theGreat Pyramid% Professor Smyth for criticism. Inmhming the manuscript Professor Smyth wrote, ex-preseing much interest. We quota part of his lettar:"As I pmgressed through the pges, the powera, therpehlties and tlworiginalities of the Author came outm@cently; and there were not a fen ptxq,oea Ishould have been glad to take a copy of for quotation,with name, in the next possible &tion of my ownPyramid book.. . . I merely remark here that he is both. good and new in much that he says on the chronologyof various parts of the Pyramid, especially the FirstAscending Passage and its granite plug; on the GrandGallery, as illustrating the Lord's life ; on the parallelismsbetween the Ging's Chamberand its granite againstthe Tabernacle and its gold; and ,generally on the muhationor close agreements between Scripture andthe Great %amidJ'The volume, "Thy Kingdom Come," awakened theinterest of John Ed- M. A,, B. Sc., M. B., C. At.,and of his brother Morton Edgar, of Glasgoq Scotland.They determined to test the theory personally. Providingthernsqes with the best scient~c instruments obtainable,long steel tapelines scientifically tested, and thelatest cam&aa for taking flash-light pictures, theyvisited the Pyramids in 1909, spending several monthsthen. They checked the records given by Colonel Vyseand Professors Smyth and Petrie. In addition theyhad the lower passam- carefully cleared, at considerablepersonal exper&, &d took many luellsurements of allthe passages, chambers, angles and cornera, nomethagoing over the gmdthree timer, to check @le er- .rora 'I'hey took flash-light pictam of dl psrte of th4interior, and many photographs of the erterior andmundingsi- A later visit was mn& by Mr. Morton Edgar in tkyenr 1912, to esamine certain featurea mom M f . 1They published "Pyramid Passaged' in two YO^-:;the first containing numerous photographq drs-:and diagrams, and showing the symboh af th. -Great Ppmid; the second dealing mom padicuklywith the chronological features. The third tdnowon the press, takes up the scienti6c featurea momparticularly. These are the most lucid andhatises yet published on the Great Pmd. It iaby the c o ~ of y Mr. Norton Edgar that we ur:privileged to present the drawings herewith.Date of mramid'a ErectionS ~ T ma E the first to suggest thal: p*sibly the builder had hidden in the geographicalP BOFE~~OBlocation of the gramid and the peculiar incline of thsinterior passages the secret of the date of its erection.His firJt calculation was 2170 B. C., but later it vu;revised, and has been definitely pmven to be 2140 B. C.The date 2140 B. C. was 4,OM pars agq one 33%yeam after the flood, 18 years before Noah died, 170.yeem befom his sari Shem died, and 20 yema before,Abraham waa born By some Shem h considerad theMelWek of sdem, later Jem-sdem, who met and- blessed Abrpham ao he was reknbg from the slaughterof the kings who had formed tho firat League of Hatimaand captured Lot and his family, as recorded in Gcnd14. It has also been suggested tht Shem was thebuilder of the Great Pyramid, and the suggestion is not -without some foundation.At 33% years after the flood the boundaries of theinhabited portion of the earth could not have atendedfar beyond Mesopotamia on the east, the &om of theCaspian, Black, and Mediterranean seas on the north,and lower mt m the south. Meane of travel wereLimited, and people were not crowding each other. Hmmuch was then ]sown of the size, shape and the landformation of the earth, and its geological divisions?IFhat ans known of the distance of the eun from the -earth, or the precession of the equinoxes, or the polar .and equatorial diameters of the earth? Let us keepthese questions in mind as we read about the Great.Penamid.First ne will notice the location selected on whichto bulld t h "Bible in StoneJJ, M Dr. S& named it.See accompan-.in,- dramng bn page 210. -In 1368 Ur. Henry Atltchell, Chief Hydrographer of ,the Cnited States Coast Suryey, was sent to report thoprogress of the Suez Canal. While in that riciniq hamade a survey of the coast of E,qt, and was ctruck44